I've been working on some new soap dishes, which has been extra exciting for a big reason. You see, I've always had to carefully transport my clay creations to a kiln shop in town to have them fired. It's a nerve wracking trip loading up fragile greenware (dry clay that hasn't been fired yet) and it's costly to pay for someone else to fire your work. This left me putting off new ideas as testing felt like a waste of resources, and when I did get fired pieces back, sometimes results were unexpected. Since I had not fired them, I had no data to understand why or where to improve.
Wanting to have more freedom to create and fire my own work had me dreaming about getting a little kiln of my own. Then I could be in control and learn more about that integral part of the process. A lot of the magic happens inside the kiln- especially with glaze results.
And so... around the end of 2022 we built a little kiln house.
A friend kindly donated some pre-painted wood he wanted to declutter from his garage. I love the idea of giving old materials a new life so I was very glad to take them with this project in mind. Huge thanks to you Mike! The side walls, double doors, and parts of the roofing are all made from it.
And here it is! My dream come true!
Not gonna lie, my husband did most of the heavy lifting here. This build is really his hard work. I'm so grateful to have such a skilled partner. Kilns have very specific power needs, and he was able to get that installed properly to ensure every safety precaution is checked off.
Having the whole process from start to finish completely here, in my hands is the best feeling ever! It's beyond exciting to feel the possibilities opening up before me.